SYNOPSICS
Kurt & Courtney (1998) is a English movie. Nick Broomfield has directed this movie. Courtney Love,Nick Broomfield,Kurt Cobain,Mari Earle are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1998. Kurt & Courtney (1998) is considered one of the best Documentary,Crime,Music movie in India and around the world.
After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people: Cobain's aunt who provides home movies and recordings, the estranged father of Cobain's widow Courtney Love, an L.A. private investigator who worked for Love, a nanny for Kurt and Courtney's child, friends and lovers of both, and others. Although Love won't talk to him and his inquiries lose him financial backing, he comes to believe the coroner's verdict. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star.
Same Actors
Same Director
Kurt & Courtney (1998) Reviews
Biased, yes, but solid and never boring
Is it objective? No. Is it informative? Yes. Is is accurate? Only as accurate as those talked to. Is it an interesting film? Without a doubt. This should have been called "Trying To Make 'Kurt & Courtney", because he never succeeds in making a decent look at their relationship but rather an intriguing look at his struggle to get the whole thing off the ground. He ran into a lot of trouble via Courtney Love and of course threw in his feelings toward her quite obviously in the film. Fans of Kurt may respect it, fans of Courtney are likely to despise it. I admit I am more a fan of Kurt than I could ever be of Courtney, he just seems a hell of a lot more real to me and she has scared me, long before this film made, with all the image make-overs and lame self-promoting publicity stunts. So I had no problem watching her get ripped into in this documentary. But a warning to hardcore HOLE fans, you may get extremely frustrated! Like it or hate it, it won't bore you!
The "Plan Nine From Outer Space" of Documentaries
About halfway through this "documentary" I suddenly realized that the film may, in fact, have been a "mockumentary". Consider the following: * The director/interviewer kept saying to the audience "I wanted to play such-and-such a song by Kurt/Nirvana, but the record label wouldn't give me permission, so here is another song by some band you've never heard of" * The complete ineptitude of the celebrity stalkers, whose digital camera runs out of battery power just as they get close to the studio that Courtney Love is recording in... and later are so nervous at an official function (where they are pretending to be the media) that they actually fail to ask Courtney Love the required questions. * The appearance of El Duce and his band "The Mentors" singing songs about sex slaves while dressed in leather executioner's gear - and then discovering that HE'S the guy who claims Courtney Love asked him to knock off Kurt. * In-depth Interviews with drug addicts and other "low-life" who claim to have met Kurt. * Courtney Love's father interpreting certain Nirvana lyrics as being a reference to LSD (a questionable complaint coming from someone who used to work as a roadie for the Grateful Dead). * The interviewer/director getting up at an official ACLU function and speaking directly AFTER Courtney Love's speech. (didn't anyone actually notice?) As all these things came together, I honestly felt that the documentary was SO bad that it could not be anything else but deliberate. Armed with the theory that this was actually a mockumentary I was surprised to learn from a cursory internet search that the film is actually a real attempt at a documentary. Given the complete disaster that this documentary is, the only film that it could therefore be compared to is Ed Wood's "Plan Nine From Outer Space". The aimlessness and ineptitude of the documentary is so pronounced that it actually becomes quite entertaining after a while. As soon as El Duce and The Mentors came into the equation I was almost howling on the floor laughing. The conspiracies surrounding Cobain's death should have been treated seriously - but they are examined in such a way as to almost be an insult to those who made the conspiracies up, let alone the memory of Cobain. Neither Dave Grohl nor Krist Novoselic (the other two members of Nirvana) are interviewed or even seen throughout the film. Other major figures, such as Kurt's immediate family, the band's manager and other record company execs are also missing from the film. Instead we are treated to a cavalcade of background figures (most of whom are drug addicts) who claim to have met and influenced Cobain way before he was a star and who all, for some reason, think that it is possible that Kurt had been murdered. Actual important leads - such as evidence that Kurt's credit card was used a few days after his death - are mentioned but never followed up and are eventually forgotten in favour of tracking down the mysterious (and ultimately hilarious) El Duce and spending time with clueless celebrity stalkers who spend more time on camera talking about what they do rather than actually doing anything. In summary, the documentary itself is far more entertaining than the subject it purports to be investigating - but entertaining only because of its chaotic and misguided interviewer who interviews all the wrong people and investigates all the wrong theories. It is about as compelling as driving past a flaming car wreck that had run over and killed a circus clown.
Smells like rivalry
I heard somewhere that Courtney Love tried like the dickens to get this little documentary banned. If there is no truth to it, why would she care so much? Makes you think... Nick Bloomfield interviews people a courtroom wouldn't consider reliable witnesses- El Duce, for one- a singer who was one bizarre addict himself. He claims Love offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain. Looking at this guy, you automatically rely on his testimony like your local weather report. Still, it is very interesting that weeks after this interview, El Duce was found dead on the railroad tracks by his home. An investigor who was at Cobain's "suicide" scene claims Cobain had way too much heroin in his system to be coherent enough to pull a trigger on himself with any accuracy. Cobain's Aunt claims the whole conspiracy theory is a load of bunk, and she feels Kurt had suicidal tendencies as well as addictions. Yet most of the people interviewed agree that Courtney was a vindictive slag, jealous of Cobain's success and tried to hitch her wagon to Nirvana's rising star (memories of Courtney and Kurt on the cover of the now defunked "Sassy" magazine, with Courtney trying to portray herself has the Nancy Spungen of the '90's comes to mind). I've never been a big Love or "Hole" fan, mainly because I don't think Love is that talented a musician or singer. I feel she has what they call "delusions of grandure", which is why this documentary, for as shaky as the evidence presented is, makes me wonder if it isn't the naked truth.
You'll be on the edge of your seat....
....waiting to see if Ms Courtney punches out director/interviewer Nick Broomfield. Whether or not there is any truth to the vague rumours that the Queen of Grunge killed the King, Kurt and Courtney is a riveting exercise in docu-propaganda. Broomfield doesn't do a good job of hiding his disdain for Courtney, but neither does anyone else on screen. Father Hank Harrison hates her, ex boyfriends hate her, Kurt's friends think she was the master manipulator...and El Duce (killed one short month after the interview in this film by a passing freight train!!) says she offered him money to kill Kurt. Why? Who knows. The only well adjusted person in this film is Kurt's aunt, and she thinks it was suicide. Whatever your personal feelings, this is a fascinating film.
Excellent documentary!
Not being particularly interested in either Kurt or Courtney, I was surprised how director Nick Broomfield managed to attract me to his film. His unique style gets us involved with the story that no one really knows where it's going. Not even the director himself. This may prove frustrating to those who have become accustomed to polished and hollywoodized type of film making, or those who are looking for a clear "angle". To me however, it was a wonderful gallery of many slices of real life: from director's own challenges to one of the best documentary film endings I've ever seen. Hats off to Nick Broomfield for his uncompromising style and bravery.